Randomly along the trail you can stumble across old tombstones and the remains of old buildings. Today was no different. The trail found its way through farmers fields and at the edges of the fields there were old chimneys standing alone and there were a couple grave sites from the early 1900s. I find the grave sites the most interesting because depending on the local you talk to you can get quite the story about the people who use to live there and how the government came to acquire the land for the trail.
Today The terrain was quite undulating, providing me with a couple 1500 foot climbs. At the top of one climb I followed the ridge line for about five miles. The ridge had these interesting rock structures on top of it. There must have been about thirty of them. Most of them had collapsed with the weight of time but some of them stood strong; standing in a circular construction with the centre filled in with rocks. I can only guess what purpose they held and everyone that I talked to was as perplexed as I was. The best suggestion was that at one time they were hollow in the middle and were used during a war to ambush the opposing soldiers while providing protection... Who knows??
The trail also passed by a memorial for the most decorated American soldier of world war II. The soldiers name was Audie Murphy and earned 24 decorations including three Purple Hearts. He died close to the site of the memorial in 1971 in a plane crash.
That night I ended up out running another thunderstorm. However, I was able to reach my destination in time and find refuge in my tent! Another success day of keeping my feet dry!
HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!!!
Today was a day full of interesting sites. One of which I have been looking forward to since I decided to hike the trail. The first one that I came across was Dragons Tooth. Dragons tooth is a stone monolith on the side of a mountain. It provided me with boundless entertainment as I scrambled along its surface. It turned out to be the perfect spot for an early morning snack as it had excellent views of the valley below. The trick was following the trail down off of dragons tooth. This was the most "technical" section of the trail I had crossed yet; requiring the use of both hands to help lower myself down over the rock. In some places they installed mental rods to provide foot placements/hand holds.
Once further along the trail I decided to reward my body with real food. I hadn't had a real meal in quite a while and there was a family style all you can eat restaurant about a mile off the trail. On my way there I met Finder and Sugarbombs. We decided to get a table together. However, we were not prepared for what we saw once we arrived. We had all remembered that today was Mother's Day but we never thought that would influence our ability to get a home cooked meal. Man were we wrong! We arrived to a 2.5hr wait for a table (there were A LOT of hungry families there). The place was absolutely packed! Luck was on our side and a hiker had arrived about an hour ahead of us and we were able to join him and as a result we only waited an hour :). The meal was a typical southern meal: deep fried chicken, ham, mashed potatoes, beans, green beans, gravy, etc. and BISCUITS!!! The biscuits were amazing! I probably ate at least six of them. After eating as much as we possibly could we waddled back to the trail and hiked the last four miles to McAfee knob. This is the place I had been waiting to see. I will try to post pictures of it. Basically it is a piece of rock that juts out into space off the top of a mountain and below it is about 1000' of air. It's a truly beautiful place. You can actually sit on the edge of the rock and let your feet dangle with nothing but open air below them. I took some photos with the classic yoga poses and watched the sun retire for the evening. It was a great way to end the day.
Total miles: 708
Total days: 46
Friday, 17 May 2013
Going solo May 9 and 10th
I have been travelling with the same group for a full month now (I met Sleeping beauty, Puddin and Patty cakes on April 8th as we left Fontana Damn and entered the Smokies). We all get along great but I had an urge to carry on solo. The group was planning on hanging around Pearisburg for the majority of the day and then head out on the trail in the late afternoon. The sun was out and the sky was blue. My spirits were high and my feet dry so I said my goodbyes, with the promise of meeting back up at Trail Days, and decided to take advantage of the sun. I headed back onto the trail alone.
I had been craving the "me time" for a while now and it was an enjoyable change of pace. It is quite amazing how beautiful and lush everything appeared after so many days of rain. For lunch I stopped at a gorgeous lookout where I met Fig (a girl also hiking solo) and Novy (a guy from Bedford NOVA SCOTIA... The province is well represented out here!). After the lookout the trail ran along a ridge (remember there is no alpine terrain so the term ridge is used loosely) with spectacular views of farm land. The colours were impeccable with different hues of orange and red being the most prominent overlay.
I didn't stop hiking for the day until 7:30pm as I made more of an effort to slow down and absorb the scenery around me. I even joined Fig and Novy for a 20min meditation session. That night I also met Hot Dog (an aspiring psychologist), All The Way (a 65yo veteran), Garbage Man (a college graduate of marine biology) and his girlfriend (who sadly I cannot remember her name but is a college graduate of biology), and Oatmeal (unfortunately I didn't catch her story).
This morning I gave myself permission to sleep in. I awoke at 6am but rolled over and went back to sleep until 7:30. It was so nice to have a relaxed morning. Puddin and Patty cakes were early risers (they like to be on the trail for 7am) and my competitive side had a hard time letting them go ahead of me. As a result, I usually found myself racing to try and get on the trail before them. So, this morning it was nice to have a break from competitive Jenna :-).
Today was a great day for the starving hiker. I stumbled upon two stashes of trail magic. One was a mixture of greens (tomatoes, bread, avocados, spinach, sandwich meat, and yellow pepper) which I gladly used to make myself the most amazing sandwich. I guess I forgot the golden rule of not taking food from strangers or not to eat random perishables found along the roadside :). The other was a pleasant surprise. Halfway up a 1300 foot climb someone had stashed cans of pop and the most delicious treat ever - oatmeal cream pies. It ended up being a much needed sugar rush as the sugar gave me the power to outrun an approaching thunderstorm and I was able to hike the last five miles to the shelter and pitch my tent before the rain started.
Today I met numerous other hikers (most of the people I am catching started hiking around the first or second week of March). For the majority of the day I chatted and hiked with Gumby (an ex marine). Tonight as I write this there are five people sleepily dozing in the shelter and eight tents set up around it. The names that I remember are Novy, Fig, Oatmeal, Gator, All the Way, two section hikers: Emily and John, Two thru hikers who didn't have trail names and preferred to keep to themselves, Big Foot, Raisin Bran Kid, and Big John.
Total miles: 668
Total days: 44
Picture is from a sign I passed today. I thought I would share just in case people forgot what the wilderness was. Too funny! I will try to post more photos in the future. They are currently all on my camera and not on my phone.
Smiles!!!!
I had been craving the "me time" for a while now and it was an enjoyable change of pace. It is quite amazing how beautiful and lush everything appeared after so many days of rain. For lunch I stopped at a gorgeous lookout where I met Fig (a girl also hiking solo) and Novy (a guy from Bedford NOVA SCOTIA... The province is well represented out here!). After the lookout the trail ran along a ridge (remember there is no alpine terrain so the term ridge is used loosely) with spectacular views of farm land. The colours were impeccable with different hues of orange and red being the most prominent overlay.
I didn't stop hiking for the day until 7:30pm as I made more of an effort to slow down and absorb the scenery around me. I even joined Fig and Novy for a 20min meditation session. That night I also met Hot Dog (an aspiring psychologist), All The Way (a 65yo veteran), Garbage Man (a college graduate of marine biology) and his girlfriend (who sadly I cannot remember her name but is a college graduate of biology), and Oatmeal (unfortunately I didn't catch her story).
This morning I gave myself permission to sleep in. I awoke at 6am but rolled over and went back to sleep until 7:30. It was so nice to have a relaxed morning. Puddin and Patty cakes were early risers (they like to be on the trail for 7am) and my competitive side had a hard time letting them go ahead of me. As a result, I usually found myself racing to try and get on the trail before them. So, this morning it was nice to have a break from competitive Jenna :-).
Today was a great day for the starving hiker. I stumbled upon two stashes of trail magic. One was a mixture of greens (tomatoes, bread, avocados, spinach, sandwich meat, and yellow pepper) which I gladly used to make myself the most amazing sandwich. I guess I forgot the golden rule of not taking food from strangers or not to eat random perishables found along the roadside :). The other was a pleasant surprise. Halfway up a 1300 foot climb someone had stashed cans of pop and the most delicious treat ever - oatmeal cream pies. It ended up being a much needed sugar rush as the sugar gave me the power to outrun an approaching thunderstorm and I was able to hike the last five miles to the shelter and pitch my tent before the rain started.
Today I met numerous other hikers (most of the people I am catching started hiking around the first or second week of March). For the majority of the day I chatted and hiked with Gumby (an ex marine). Tonight as I write this there are five people sleepily dozing in the shelter and eight tents set up around it. The names that I remember are Novy, Fig, Oatmeal, Gator, All the Way, two section hikers: Emily and John, Two thru hikers who didn't have trail names and preferred to keep to themselves, Big Foot, Raisin Bran Kid, and Big John.
Total miles: 668
Total days: 44
Picture is from a sign I passed today. I thought I would share just in case people forgot what the wilderness was. Too funny! I will try to post more photos in the future. They are currently all on my camera and not on my phone.
Smiles!!!!
Thursday, 9 May 2013
Rain rain and more rain
Rest days are great however, when you leave town you end up in a hiker bubble (high concentration on hikers). Leaving Damascus was no different. The first night out there were nine hikers, in addition to our group of seven, who stayed at the same campsite. To help us get away from the bubble our group pushed on and completed twenty miles. It was an interesting day as the trail took us through Grayson highland park. The park is home to a large number of wild horses and we were actually fortunate enough to get close enough to pet them! I offered ten dollars to anyone who would ride one but sadly no one took me up on my offer. Nova did however take the prize, sighting eight horses! The day ended with more trail magic consisting of hotdogs and pop...yum!
Trail magic always seems to stop us in our tracks so we (sleeping beauty, nova, puddin, patty cakes, night rider, spanky, and etch-a-sletch) decided to pitch our tents there for the night. That night the wind gusted and the rain fell. Unfortunately, night rider and sleeping beauty both had rain get into their tarp tents and soaked all of their stuff. As a result, they both high tailed it to the next road so that they could hitchhike into town and dry off. I waited a couple of hours to see if the rain would die off (which it never did) and then worked up the courage to brave the elements.
I managed to put in twenty miles that day and was happy to see nova, puddin and patty cakes come up the trail and join me for the night.
I left the group to head into Marion, VA to make some phone calls and pick up a package. To my surprise, and the groups, I was able to catch back up that day putting in another 14miles after 2:30. The terrain in VA is a little more flat and we often find ourselves hiking through farmers fields (with cows in the field). It's a welcome change in scenery.
For the past four days we've had rain every day! Yesterday I arrived in Pearisburg after hiking, sometimes calf deep, through mud, overflowing streams and low lying branches. It was definitely type two fun. Sadly, I am regretting my decision to forgo rain pants. I fully expected the temperatures to be much warmer by now and with all this rain I am officially freezing my butt off. Hopefully, the sun will come out and the rain will disappear....right...the forecast for the next two days is...RAIN! :-)
Well...I am back on the trail this morning. I hope everyone is doing well back home.
Total mileage: 630
Total days: 42
Ps - the picture is what your feet will look like after 550miles. Enjoy! :-)
Trail magic always seems to stop us in our tracks so we (sleeping beauty, nova, puddin, patty cakes, night rider, spanky, and etch-a-sletch) decided to pitch our tents there for the night. That night the wind gusted and the rain fell. Unfortunately, night rider and sleeping beauty both had rain get into their tarp tents and soaked all of their stuff. As a result, they both high tailed it to the next road so that they could hitchhike into town and dry off. I waited a couple of hours to see if the rain would die off (which it never did) and then worked up the courage to brave the elements.
I managed to put in twenty miles that day and was happy to see nova, puddin and patty cakes come up the trail and join me for the night.
I left the group to head into Marion, VA to make some phone calls and pick up a package. To my surprise, and the groups, I was able to catch back up that day putting in another 14miles after 2:30. The terrain in VA is a little more flat and we often find ourselves hiking through farmers fields (with cows in the field). It's a welcome change in scenery.
For the past four days we've had rain every day! Yesterday I arrived in Pearisburg after hiking, sometimes calf deep, through mud, overflowing streams and low lying branches. It was definitely type two fun. Sadly, I am regretting my decision to forgo rain pants. I fully expected the temperatures to be much warmer by now and with all this rain I am officially freezing my butt off. Hopefully, the sun will come out and the rain will disappear....right...the forecast for the next two days is...RAIN! :-)
Well...I am back on the trail this morning. I hope everyone is doing well back home.
Total mileage: 630
Total days: 42
Ps - the picture is what your feet will look like after 550miles. Enjoy! :-)
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